Funding

News

Jerwood Bursaries

What are they?

What do you need to progress your practice and/or career? What do you need to kick start a new idea?

Jerwood Bursaries provide funding to help you explore and develop your next steps, whether through supporting your skills and knowledge development and/or supporting the first stage development of a new idea. We want you to pursue your interests independently and on your own terms.

A Jerwood Bursary can support your skills and knowledge development by funding opportunities to network, find new partners for collaboration, receive mentoring or take part in training, conferences and workshops. It can support development of your practice through covering costs of attending residencies or being on attachment. It can support the first stages of development of a new idea through research and development, experimenting, drafting or workshopping. It can support you with any combination of these, and anything else that you believe will help you learn, grow and take control of the development of your artistic practice and career, and/or help kick start the creation of new work where an outcome is unknown.

drafting, scratching, workshopping and other first stage artistic development methods

developing specific skills and knowledge on your terms

time and space to test new ideas

The costs of travel in the UK and care can be covered by a Jerwood Bursary in order to participate in one or more of the activities above.

Activities can start once funding is confirmed. There is no expectation for how short or long the activity should be, but proposals that are time-limited and finish within 12 months of receiving the bursary are preferred.

We expect to be the sole funder of this award, although in-kind and other income sources may be taken into consideration where appropriate.

We will run two rounds of Jerwood Bursaries in 2019, one for applicants within 6-10 years of establishing their artistic practice (deadline 4 March) and one for applicants within 1-5 years of establishing their artistic practice (deadline 7 October) (with link). Please see our General FAQs for how we think about length of artistic practice.

Based on our experience of running Artist Bursaries and Performing Arts Micro Bursaries in 2017 and 2018, we will receive around 500 applications for each round and be able to make between 25-30 awards each time. Due to this high level of competition, it is highly unlikely we will fund anyone with less than a year of commitment to their professional practice and/or who has not had at least one piece of work professionally produced, presented, published or exhibited.

For individuals whose first professional experience will have been between 2014 and 2018, unless they have had a career change or break.

Fund opens for applications: 15 July 2019 Applications must be received by: 5pm, 7 October 2019 Decisions will be communicated by: 15 November 2019

Advice

As well as the guidance on this page, we have created a Jerwood Bursaries FAQ and General FAQ. These cover the most common questions arising and are updated regularly, so please read them.

If you have a question after reading the guidance and FAQs, please send it by email to info@jerwoodarts.org. We will acknowledge your email within three working days and aim to answer your question within five working days.

If your question requires further conversation, then we will book you in to speak with one of our team, which can be in person, a telephone call or a Skype conversation. Please note that the advice we give on making an application is on the eligibility and suitability of the activity for the Jerwood Bursary only, and will have no bearing on its assessment. You do not need to have spoken to a Jerwood Arts member of staff before making an application.

Eligibility criteria

Across all our activity, individuals receiving our support must be:

practising artists, curators and/or producers

within the first ten years of starting a professional practice (this can be self-defined – see FAQ for details)

willing to be bold and take risks

living and working in the UK and committed to making a positive contribution to the UK arts sector

You cannot apply if you:

have made a previous application for a Jerwood Bursary in the last 12 months

We welcome applications

from those with and without formal education or qualifications

from previous applicants, as well as those who have not applied before, so long as you have not applied to us in the last 12 months

if you work in any discipline and/or across disciplines

if your situation, background and/or identity is currently under-supported across the art sector, including but not limited to under-represented BAME backgrounds, LGBTQ+ identities, gender identities, socio-economic backgrounds, those with disabilities and those with caring responsibilities

We are committed to making our funding accessible to all and supporting applicants facing barriers to apply. Please email info@jerwoodarts.org and tell us what you need to enable you to apply.

What you can expect from us

If you are successful, you can expect us to:

meet you and connect you with other recipients of our funding through our networks and events

be profiled on our website and social media (with your permission)

be available throughout the delivery of your programme for advice

engage with the events and activities you run wherever we can.

If your application is unsuccessful, you can request written feedback on your application within six weeks of the outcome.

What we expect from you

If you are successful, we expect you to:

inform us of the progress of the project and any significant changes before they happen

credit Jerwood Arts as a supporter of the project on all digital and print materials

participate in the Jerwood Arts network of artists, organisations and events

contribute to our research on support for artists

submit a report at the end of the project telling us how it went against your original plan

The selection and decision making process

Eligibility check and longlist:

Applications will be reviewed by at least two Jerwood Arts staff members, who will meet to decide on a longlist of approximately 100 applications per round

Artist Adviser assessment:

Each application on the longlist will be reviewed by at least two Artist Advisers with expertise relevant to the proposed activity

Panel:

The Artist Advisors and Jerwood Arts staff scoring and comments are combined and discussed at a panel meeting including at least two Artist Advisors and a Jerwood Arts staff member.